If the State Senate adopts the Pelosi-Plan it will mean another liberal in Washington supporting the big-government agenda.
It will make it harder for Republicans to balance the budget and harder for us to repeal Obamacare.  The Pelosi-Plan must be stopped.

No one who considers themselves a conservative should be supporting a plan designed to give Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama more power in Washington.

The State Senate will consider the Pelosi-Plan tomorrow.  Please call you state senator immediately at 225-342-2040 and tell them to vote NO on SB3 by Senator Lydia Jackson.

If you cannot reach them by phone, each Senator’s email address is available online.

Recent elections have made clear that Louisiana does not want Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House, and Louisiana does not need another Yes Man for Obama’s reckless agenda.

Louisiana’s elected leaders in the State Senate need to hear from the people they represent.  Contact them now and make your voice heard.

Metairie, LA – Today Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere called on Louisiana Democrat Party Chairman Buddy Leach to denounce Caroline Fayard’s hate-filled rhetoric.

“Louisiana voters deserve an open and honest debate of the issues, but Caroline Fayard’s disappointing and vicious rhetoric conflicts with the very concept of civil discourse,” said Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere.  “Fayard’s negative and divisive commentary reveals a true partisan, driven by hate, who is wholly unfit for elected office.  Today I call on Democrat Party Chairman Buddy Leach to join the Republican Party of Louisiana in denouncing Fayard’s hate-filled and disgusting comments.”

Today I’m pleased to announce that our Party is hosting the Leadership Institute for our first Grassroots Training Session of 2011 in Lafayette on March 12th.  The Leadership Institute, headed by Louisiana native Morton Blackwell, is dedicated to increasing the number and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders.

There are 996 elected offices on the ballot this October and our success will be determined by the quality of candidates we recruit, the preparations by those candidates, and the grassroots supporters who do the hard work to help our candidates to victory.

If you are considering putting your name on the ballot this fall, or planning to actively campaign in support of our Republican candidates,  I encourage you to join us in Lafayette and learn the basics.

The Leadership Institute has already conducted training programs for 91,000 conservatives across the country and on March 12th they’ll be talking to us about preparing for a campaign, building coalitions, and organizing at the precinct level.

Qualifying is still many months away, but building the foundation for success must start now.  Please take a moment to Register Today and please forward this invitation to anyone you know who is considering a run for public office.

Our success this fall is directly dependent on recruiting strong conservative candidates and mobilizing our grassroots supporters and organizations to effectively fight back against those who demand higher taxes and higher government spending.

Please join us in Lafayette on March 12th.

Chairman Villere Responds to the State of the Union

Metairie, LA – Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere released the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:

“Once again tonight the president offered lofty rhetoric and carefully crafted turns of phrase, but the American people have not and will not judge him by his oratory or his promises.  Instead, they evaluate his years in office by his actions.  Thus far those actions have increased government spending, increased government control, and have not created jobs.  Much of what was said tonight has been said before, and promises of new spending disguised as ‘investments’  offer little hope that the president takes deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility seriously.

“I, and thousands of Louisianians, are disappointed tonight that the president’s 6,826 word message, including 184 words dedicated to a 2,000 foot hole in Chile, excluded any mention of the millions of gallons of crude oil that spewed into the Gulf last summer from 5,000 feet below the surface.  It is truly a shame that the president did not renew his commitment to the Gulf Coast with changes to a messy claims process and an end to the de-facto moratorium that has cost and continues to threaten the jobs of thousands of Louisianians.  Louisiana families and small businesses heard nothing new to ease their fears that this administration cares nothing for the jobs that fuel our nation’s economic engine.”

Baton Rouge – Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere released the following statement upon receiving the news that My Quang Cao, the father of Congressman Joseph Cao, had passed away:

“On behalf the Republican Party of Louisiana I would like to extend our deepest condolences to Joseph and the entire Cao family.  As an officer in the South Vietnamese Army, My Quang Cao not only stood up to the Communists but was subjected to both physical and psychological torture as a prisoner of war in Communist ‘re-education camps.’  Though separated by great distance for much of their lives, it is quite evident that the freedom loving spirit of My Quang Cao, his courage of conviction, and his belief in a cause greater than himself carry on through his son Joseph and the Cao family.  Our hearts and prayers are with the Cao family in their time of sorrow and we wish them the sure and certain hope that their husband, father, and grandfather lives on through their memories.”

Two hundred thirty-four years ago, at the dawn of our great nation, the Founding Fathers set a course destined to uniquely and permanently alter human history.

As we celebrate our nation’s independence with friends and family, we reflect on the timeless principles upon which our predecessors had the foresight to base our system of government.  It is by their words and deeds that we have the opportunity to flourish in this land of the free and home of the brave. The ideals for which they struggled cast the mold for a nation where opportunity could blossom and to which the weary eyes of the world would look for hope and inspiration as tribute to the enduring power of liberty.

On July 4, 1776, these courageous men etched in parchment the unalienable rights bestowed by our Creator; and ever since that day countless men and women from sea to shining sea have defended freedom and promoted liberty across the globe.  Today, we honor their sacrifices with gratitude, offering our steadfast resolve to face the challenges that lay before us.

For many in Louisiana, these trials do not lie dormant in the haze of an unknown future, but in the excruciating immediacy of the present.  We have now entered the 74th day of the gulf oil spill, a disaster of epic environmental and economic impact to the Louisiana way of life that has long endured for generations.  Just as we remember the patriots and statesman who struggled for the nation we are so fortunate to have inherited, so too must we consider those who struggle today to prevent their livelihoods from drowning in the mire of either oil– or bureaucratic incompetence.

We at the Republican Party of Louisiana wish you a happy and safe Fourth of July.  Enjoy the fireworks and cherish the fellowship with your family and friends, and observe not only the challenges overcome, but the challenges which threaten to overcome us.

Sincerely,

Roger Villere, Chairman

Villere Calls Out Obama, D.C. Democrats on Obstructing Oil Spill Visit

Villere says Democrats from Obama to Pelosi have done everything in their power to impede Louisiana’s recovery

Baton Rouge – Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere expressed his outrage today that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is blocking members of Congress from visiting the devastation of the Louisiana coastline.  Villere also offered Congressman Steve Scalise the full support of the Party in making sure members of Congress are able to visit the oil spill disaster area.

“President Obama has stumbled and stalled his way through this oil spill cleanup effort and now Nancy Pelosi is standing in the way of members of Congress who want to see the devastation firsthand,” stated Villere.  “It’s no surprise that some are starting to wonder why so many D.C. Democrats, from the President to Pelosi, seem content to leave the future of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in such peril,” added Villere.

This most recent obstruction by Pelosi comes on the heels of information that after more than 70 days of oil gushing from the mangled Deepwater Horizon, President Obama has finally decided to allow American allies to assist in the cleanup process.

“Unless there is some extraordinary reason to prohibit this trip – which has yet to be communicated to us – this is an unacceptable departure from past practices,” said Representative Dan Lungren of California, the top Republican on the administration committee.

As to why Democrats were blocking Congressmen from seeing the coast, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, referred to “energy policies that have done nothing to secure our energy future”.

“These statements by Nancy Pelosi’s office shed even further light as to the real reason Democrats are blocking our recovery and cleanup efforts.  It’s time for Democrats to put aside partisan politics and catering to the liberal left and focus on getting the job done on cleaning up this mess that they’re helping to create,” concluded Villere.

In his ruling, Judge Feldman found that moratorium was arbitrarily imposed saying “an invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country.”

“Today’s ruling brings a sense of relief to thousands of Louisianians whose livelihoods are either directly or indirectly impacted by Obama’s drilling moratorium,” said Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere.  “Unfortunately, the decision seems to have already fallen on deaf ears at the White House.  The Obama Administration’s pledge to appeal today’s decision simply reinforces the hypocrisy behind Obama’s pledge to ‘spare no effort’ in responding to this spill.  Whether it’s the moratorium or job killing Cap & Tax legislation, Obama seems content on turning an environmental disaster into an economic nightmare.”

In Case You Missed…

Administration to appeal strikedown of offshore drilling ban

The Hill
By Michael O’Brien
June 22, 2010

“…White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration would appeal a decision by a district court judge granting an injunction against President Barack Obama’s temporary ban on deepwater offshore drilling…

‘Continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense,’ Gibbs added.

The administration’s decision to ban drilling was likely ‘arbitrary and capricious’ and would do ‘irreparable harm’ to companies and individuals’ livelihoods, federal Judge Martin Feldman wrote in his decision. Feldman granted a preliminary injunction against the moratorium’s effects.”

Click Here For The Full Story In The Hill

“The oil spill that continues to devastate our state’s coastal wetlands is an ongoing disaster that threatens both our culture and our livelihoods.  In addition to the immediate and long term devastation caused directly by the spill, Obama doubled down on tragedy last month with a drilling moratorium that will cost Louisianians jobs and push our domestic production overseas.  Never one to ‘let a good crisis go to waste,’ tonight Obama added insult to injury with his push for a liberal ‘cap and trade’ national energy tax that will further cripple our state’s economy.

When Obama announced last week that he was looking for an ass to kick – we all thought he meant BP or the federal bureaucrats whose ineptitude and delays have hindered our state’s response.  Tonight Obama made clear that Louisiana families and businesses will be on the receiving end of his ass kicking.”

While Gov. Jindal, Sen. Vitter and our coastal parish officials all strongly oppose Obama’s indefinite job-killing off shore moratorium, Rep. Charlie Melancon continues to downplay the impacts and shift the blame.

Repeatedly, Melancon has cast dispersion on oil companies saying that “just because they want to shut [them] down for a short period of time, [they] take [their] toys and [they’re] going somewhere else.”

But as Sen. David Vitter has said, the “rigs won’t wait idly for six months, [the oil companies will] move them overseas to places like West Africa or Brazil and take jobs with them.”  And he’s right, just today Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has announced it’s moving three rigs from the gulf to meet its annual production goals.

For the long term economic health of South Louisiana we simply cannot allow this drilling moratorium to cripple the oil industry and all of the supporting industries throughout our state.

And if chastising the oil industry for their reaction to Obama’s ill-conceived moratorium wasn’t enough, Melancon made one thing explicitly clear on WWL saying “fingers should not be pointed at the president or the federal government.”

Really?  Whose federal agencies approved drilling of the well?  Who failed for weeks to approve plans developed by Gov. Jindal and local officials?  Who is still failing to deliver the resources requested even after they’ve been approved?  And whose decision was it to enact the moratorium?

We all know the answers to these questions and so the American people.  A survey released just this week found that 69% of the American people had an unfavorable opinion of the federal government’s response to the spill.  That’s even worse than the 62% who disapproved of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Weeks ago Charlie Melancon was accused of calling the oil spill overplayed and now he’s downplaying the moratoriums impact and shifting responsibility.

Louisiana knows the importance of our wetlands and the oil industry to our state and Melancon’s relentless defense of Obama’s failed policies and drilling moratorium demonstrate his clear commitment to liberal leaders in Washington over the people of Louisiana.

Sincerely,

Roger Villere, Chairman
Republican Party of Louisiana